Major Spoilers Poll of the Week (POW!): Zero Month

Now that DC has wrapped up its month of zero issues, it’s time to reflect on the gimmick to give current readers a glimpse of what came before the New 52 relaunch, and give new readers a chance to jump on the ongoing series.

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17 Comments

My main problem is it interrupted pretty much most of the stories that were going on. Also most of the time, from what I read it seemed overall pointless, and for all one good issue there were two meh-to-bad-ones.

I’m really disappointed by how they’ve mangled the timeline of Batman’s origin — and the ‘new’ origins of everyone even tangentially related to his story.

– There was never an Oracle.
– Tim was never Robin.
– Tim’s last name isn’t even Drake.
– Damian is 10 years old, but Batman has only been around for 5 years.
– The Joker is responsible for every major event in Jason Todd’s life.
– Final Crisis never happened, but it did.

I starting with the New 52 with issue one and thats where I stopped. Getting back into comics it seemed like a great opportunity but the books just seem very slow and I dropped off all of the titles. I gave DC another chance with their Zero issue month. I picked up every single zero issue and it sold it for me. I now have 15 titles on my pull list including Superman and Detective comics and DC finally has me as a montly customer.

As a unified concept of issues across all of the titles it was a bust. Some were flashbacks, others not. Some were jumping on points, some were not. Some were just another issue with a “0” on it. Some were introducing new series, some were codas at the end of canceled series. So no rhyme or reason. And they are a pain to box (Where do I put Green Lantern #0? Before #1? Between 12 and 13?)
As for the stories. Well, I only read the ones for series I already liked and was reading (+ Amythist) (sp) and all and all, I liked them!. So overall positive from there. But then again, I didn’t read any #0s from series I didn’t like so there is a reporting error there.

I really enjoyed most of them. There were a few that infuriated me (taking Tim Drake’s detective prowess away from him and randomly making Dick Grayson the Robin that found out that Bruce Wayne was Batman was a really bad decision editorially)

Overall I’d rate it as more good than bad, and there were a couple absolutely FANTASTIC issues that more than redeemed the bad ones. While I was initially hesitant at getting the ongoing stories interrupted, this event was successful for me.

Would I want to see something like it happen again next year? Heck no. But as a one-time thing it was pretty solid.

I really liked Justice League Dark’s story of John and Zee’s early days together, and the story feeds directly into the current Books of Magic story arc. The Flash’s issue 0 was less of a joy: I understand needing to provide “motivation” but I always liked Barry’s motivation as being a good guy who wants to do good. DC already has a Batman for the parental angst (and Superman, and Wonder Woman, and Robin, and…)

I used this as an opportunity to try out some new books and was pleasantly surprised by some. The main disappointment was the inconsistency in what they were trying to accomplish. Not every issue was a jumping on point, some just went on with their current story lines. Still, I enjoyed it even if it could have been better.

I think I lucked out with the zero issues I collected.
The Dial H and Wonder Woman #0’s were both more than I was expecting.
After reading your reviews, I can appreciate that this has been a mixed bag overall.

I am interested to see if the “second season” of the New 52 can deliver on the overall strong showing thus far.

I liked it, in spite of the low points. Action,Green Lantern, Nightwing, Batman and Justice League were really good. The others were, for the most part, not. Earth 2, and Resurection Man were disappointing. Ravagers was ghastly. and the others I read don’t warrant mentining. I have yet to read the final weeks books, and have high hopes for Flash and Aquaman.